Boiling Over
by Kuno12
Summary: When Kai and Jinora get into a fight, Jinora's not sure if the two of them are as connected as she thought they were. Older Kainora.


More Kainora! I've got this whole list of things I want to write for them. This ship has breathed new life into me.

This fic is also on my tumblr blog where my username is Kuno-chan and my blog name is Dragoness Ramblings.

Disclaimer: Legend of Korra belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

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**Boiling Over**

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The salty breeze and waves lapping up against the shore were always something Jinora loved about coming down to the beach on Air Temple Island. They relaxed her. Sure, when she wanted to calm herself in a more focused way she could go off somewhere quiet to meditate, but the beach was a place that she could breathe in the life around her and just enjoy the fresh air. There was always a little wind blowing around that made her feel one with her element. Today, unfortunately, she just couldn't seem to enjoy the scene.

A padding sound was coming from under her foot where she kept tapping it, sand rising up from the spot with a slightly unnatural force. She couldn't stop herself from looking up in the sky or at the cliffs at her back. From the sun's position she determined that it was a little past noon. Close to an hour past the time Kai and her had agreed to meet. For someone who kept such a close, accurate watch on the time whenever it got close to a meal, he sure was late. Although, she'd braced herself for this when they set aside the time. It's not like this would be a first or anything.

A swooshing sound made her look up. Kai landed gracefully onto the sand a little ways from her. He walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek, "Hi, sweetheart."

"You're late." said Jinora, frowning. "_Again_."

Kai grinned at her, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "Sorry, I was feeding Lefty."

"It took you almost an hour to feed him?"

"Well, he wanted to play after that and I couldn't really say no to that, could I? So, we went out flying for a little bit just so he could get his exercise... you don't mind, do you?"

Jinora sighed. An airbender practices patience, she thought soothingly. A lot of patience. She unsuccessfully tried to force some sort of smile as she got into her stance and waited for him to do the same."Come one, let's get started."

Admittedly, she may have used that sparring session as a way to vent out her frustrations a little bit and the force of the blows she was throwing at him might have been a little bit excessive. She kicked out her leg, sending a rush of air that he barely threw off in time and buffeted him back a couple feet, "H-hey!" When he was able to steady himself again, he blinked at her. "Is everything alright? You're not usually this forceful."

"Sorry. Just tired," she said gruffly. "Don't know my own strength sometimes."

"I guess..." he said, rubbing his arm where the blow had mostly landed. "Hey, you want to go sit down and eat something?"

"But we just started!"

"I know, but I'm a little tired from playing with Lefty. So, do you want to?"

For the umpteenth time that day, Jinora sighed, "Alright, fine. Let's go."

They traveled up to the dining hall in silence. For once, Jinora didn't feel like talking to Kai at the moment. First, he made her wait for him almost a whole hour and then when he finally arrived their spar was cut short because he got hungry. In perfect honesty, today she was happy to respond to his attempts at starting a conversation with short, clear cut answers only.

They finally arrived at the dining hall when someone hailed Kai from down the corridor. A fellow airbender, Yuka, caught up with them.

"Oh, hey Yuka. What's wrong?" asked Kai.

"Nothing, nothing. I just wanted to see if we could move our training session to tomorrow morning if that's alright? I'm going to help out in the greenhouse today and I'm not sure I'll have time later."

"Sure." said Kai, smiling. "I'll get up bright and early. Meet you at the training area?"

"No problem. Thanks, a lot Kai. I'll see you there!"

At that moment, something burst and overflowed in Jinora's chest as she watched Yuka walk away. She looked at Kai, unsure of whether to storm off or yell at him. Something very un-airbender like had gripped her tongue when he saw the look on her face and asked, "What?"

"_Bright and early_? You're going to get up bright and early so you can meet Yuka on time for a spar?"

"Well, yeah. I told him I would. Why wouldn't I keep my promise?" asked Kai, confused.

Jinora scowled. "Well, I don't know. I was asking myself the same question when you left me standing on the beach for an hour!"

"Wait, what? I thought you said you weren't upset about that?"

"I never said anything of the sort. In fact, I didn't say anything at all!"

"Well, then how am I supposed to know you're upset?" he said, throwing his palms up.

"Hmm, I don't know. Maybe not keeping your promise to someone is a way to make them upset? Who knew!?"

"Not keeping my promise? Jinora, it was just one sparring session. One. We've had hundreds! And how did I not keep my promise? I was there! "

"You were late." she said, crossing her arms.

"I told you already, I was with Lefty." he said, ruffling his hair the way she knew he did when he was frustrated.

"Yeah, but you realize you've been late to every one of our sparring sessions this month, right?"

"Well, I might get a little distracted sometimes, sure, but is it really that big of a deal? Don't you think you're being a little uptight about this?"

"I'm being uptight? Really? Of course, you won't take the blame-"

"The blame for _what_? Jinora, I was late to a _sparring session_! What has gotten into you today?"

The rest of that overflowing anger inside of Jinora's chest boiled over into the rest of her as Kai stood there, shirking things off again like they were no big deal. She threw her hands down furiously, "You're always like this! You are so irresponsible! Why can't you just take things seriously for once? And here I started to think that getting your tattoos and becoming a master might have made you a little more reliable, but I guess I was wrong."

"Wait, so now I'm not just irresponsible, but I'm unreliable?"

"Yes-no. That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean? Because from what it sounds like I'm not the one being unreasonable here."

"Unreasonable? You know what? Eat by yourself, I'm out of here." She turned to storm away, but Kai beat her to it.

"Don't tax yourself," he said, stalking off. "I've lost my appetite."

Feeling a headache coming on, Jinora blindly marched down the other direction, unsure of where exactly she was supposed to be headed to.

About an hour after her argument with Kai, everything felt wrong. They never fought. That's just how it had always been even after they'd gotten into a relationship. He was too laid back and she was too patient for them to be getting into squabbles on any sort of regular basis. It was one of the things that had made them so close in the first place. For the past five years since they'd met, he was always the one person she could count on to make her happy when her day wasn't looking so bright. It's not like they hadn't had their little arguments before, but they always resolved them quickly before it became anything. Being mad at each other like this, quite frankly, made her uncomfortable deep inside even if close to the surface she was still mad at him.

She eventually found herself at the docks. Feeling thoroughly miserable by now, she set down her staff and plopped down beside it, looking out at Republic City across the bay. A fleeting thought came to mind about meditating, but she wasn't sure she could properly clear her mind at the moment. On one hand, she felt like perhaps she _had _been a little bit hard on him, but at the same time Kai had to stop brushing things off so much. Admittedly, she had been a little hurt that he would make a great effort to meet Yuka for a sparring session, but he hadn't been able to meet his own girlfriend for any of their own in the past month.

"Jinora? You feeling okay, hon?"

Jinora looked up to see her Aunt Kya standing beside her, smiling kindly. From the look on her face, she had a feeling no one would have to be asking what the other was doing all the way out here, "Oh, hi Aunt Kya. So, I guess you heard about Kai and I."

"Well, not exactly." said Kya, "But I did see him looking rather angry around here sometime ago. He got on his glider and caught a boat to the city." She made a gesture towards the bay.

"Oh," said Jinora gloomily. She didn't think Kai would actually up and leave the island. "How did you know we had a fight though?"

"Well, after I saw him fly off the way he did and found you sitting here looking blue I was kind of able to put two and two together. You two are pretty connected."

"Not as connected as I thought apparently." said Jinora grumpily.

"Hmm. Mind if I sit?" asked Kya, getting down beside her after Jinora gestured for her to take a seat. "So, want to tell me what happened?"

It was easy to tell her Aunt Kya all about her fight with Kai. She listened to Jinora with her full, undivided attention and, finally, Jinora's day seemed slightly less miserable after talking about it. When she finished her story, Kya looked thoughtful.

"I see." she said. "So, all those other times he was late. Do you know what he was doing?"

"Well... the first time he was helping in the greenhouse and that was fine. After that, he forgot because he was tending to the lemurs. Then after that, it was because he offered to wax the temple floors. Now, it was because he was playing with Lefty. I mean, those aren't bad things. In fact, they're really good things but-"

"But you feel like he's brushing you off for everybody else."

Jinora could feel her face getting hot. It was embarrassing to admit that, yes, she felt a little neglected, "Yeah. A little. I mean, I don't want him all to myself or anything I just need to know that he takes me seriously and doesn't just blow me off because it's me and he thinks I'll always forgive him automatically. I mean, aren't those signs of a red flag or something?"

"Mmm, yes and no." said Kya, nodding carefully.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, firstly, I agree with you. Kai needs to take you seriously sometimes. Like you said, he shouldn't just put you aside because he thinks you're going to automatically forgive him. That's not very respectful to you. But at the same time..." she said, raising a hand as if to represent a scale. "It also sounds like Kai's just being the guy you fell in love with."

"I know." said Jinora, bringing her knees up to her chest. "I mean, if he was off doing stupid things I would have gotten mad at him a while ago, but he's playful and kind and that's how he is. It makes me feel bad that this upsets me, but he can be so careless too. It's just- I don't know."

They sat in silence for a moment, letting the breeze run through their hair. Jinora wanted this sense of calm to wash over her, taking away the conflict inside her.

"You know," began Kya. "Kai reminds me a little bit of your grandfather actually."

Jinora looked up. "Grandpa Aang?"

"Yeah, actually. Let me tell you a story. One day, your father and grandfather took a trip to one of the air temples like they did every so often. They were supposed to go there, stay a few days for your father to do some studying and come back. Only supposed to be gone for about a week. Week and a half at the most. Well, they were gone for three weeks. Turns out they stopped by Kiyoshi Island on the way home and Dad being Dad, got a little bit distracted with the Elephant Koi, catching up with the locals, the scenery and ended up staying a little bit longer than they had meant to. Well, you can imagine just how thrilled your grandmother was when she found out where they had been all that time. They had a fight. Didn't talk for days. Your grandfather didn't feel like he did anything wrong and your grandmother felt like he was being childish."

To make a long story short, not too long after he came back, your grandfather got called away on an emergency in the next town over. He barely had time to say goodbye to any of us before he had to leave. Your grandmother was worried the whole week he was gone. You couldn't get her to focus on anything. Everything she cooked that week was a little burnt let me tell you. As soon as he came back, she flung herself at him and kissed him like she hadn't seen him in years."

"So, she apologized to him?"

"They both apologized. See, Jinora. Your grandfather _was _wrong. He should have come home sooner or at least sent some sort of message ahead. He apologized for that. Your grandmother apologized for being so angry for so long. It wasn't your grandmother's fault really, but that's not what upset her about the whole thing. You see, I don't think your grandmother would have forgiven herself if that had been the time your grandfather didn't come home."

"So..." Jinora sighed. "So, nobody's perfect."

"Well, yes, but the point I'm trying to make here is that everybody fights. Even the people who were made for each other and meant to be together forever. It's not all about who was right and who was wrong. What really matters is that you two eventually come together and fix it. Don't let the matter boil over for longer than it has to."

Having never met her grandfather, Jinora didn't know those types of details about him. It had never truly occurred to her that even her grandparents got into it with each other. They always so...so perfect. At that moment, she noticed a medium-sized boat not too far off from the docks. Feeling better than she had been ten minutes ago she took it as a sign. "I'm going to go find Kai," she said, standing up.

"I think that's a good idea," said Kya, following suit.

Jinora smiled for what felt like the first time today and threw her arms around her aunt.

"Thank, Aunt Kya."

"No problem, kiddo," Kya warmly returned the hug. She gestured to the boat floating towards the city, "Do you need any help?"

"I think I've got it, but you might want to stand back a little."

After Kya retreated a few feet, Jinora launched herself in the air, catching a gust of wind and riding it all the way until she was able to land on top of the boat. One of the crew members blinked up at the strange sight of a girl standing on the very top of their boat. "Oh, sorry. Do you mind?"

When she finally got into the city, Jinora began looking first on top of the buildings. Being an airbender, she thought Kai might have felt most comfortable on heights. After almost an hour and a half of scouring city rooftops, she got onto ground and checked the park, then some of the favorite spots he took her to sometimes at night, some of their favorite restaurants, Central City Station and any other place she knew he had some sort of interest in. By the time Jinora had checked every place she could think of the sky had started to turn pink and her stomach was growling very loudly. Exhausted from being up and about all afternoon, she wandered back to the park and settled onto a bench, feeling rather deflated. Though he could take care of himself, if anything had happened to Kai while he was in the city she would probably be hard pressed to forgive herself as well. Now, she knew a little bit of how her grandmother felt with Grandpa Aang.

"Jinora?"

Knowing that voice, Jinora immediately got up and looked around. Kai, looking about as tired as she was, was coming down the paved pathway. They walked towards each other as if they hadn't seen the other in ages.

"I've been looking for you all day." said Jinora, slightly breathless

"I've been looking for you too." said Kai.

"You have?"

"Yeah. After our fight, I caught a boat to the city to cool off. I felt bad though so I turned around and went back to the island, but by the time I got there your aunt said that you had already gone into the city to find me. So, I turned around again and here I am. Been looking for you all day..." he looked down at his feet, then back up at her. "Jinora, I'm sorry about this morning. You were right. I have been irresponsible lately."

"I'm sorry too." she said. "I was hard on you and I shouldn't have called you unreliable. I should have said something earlier to you about how I was feeling so we could talk. Instead, I bottled it up inside until it boiled over. I was irresponsible too."

"No, you were being Jinora." he said, taking her hand. "Sweet, kind, patient, gentle Jinora. That's not being irresponsible. That's being the the girl I fell I love with."

"You were just being yourself too. You're always trying to help out somewhere. Even with the animals. I should have tried to understand that. That's why I love you." Seeing his face and feeling his hand in hers lifted a sick weight out of Jinora's chest. Suddenly, she felt like as air.

"Well, I promise that from now on I'll do my best to be on time and not be so thoughtless. I guess since it was you, I got complacent." he said, smiling weakly. "Do you forgive me?"

"I do. And I promise that from now on I'll come talk to you instead of letting things build up until we get into a fight."

"That sounds like a plan," he said, pulling her into an embrace and planting a tender kiss on her lips.

When they pulled back, she grinned at him and linked her arm in his, "So, since we're all the way out here now and both probably starving... why don't we just go out to dinner, hm?"

"I was just thinking the same thing. Lead the way, beautiful."


End file.
